- Mitchell Starc says Australia were not looking to eliminate England
- The Australians knew a loss to Scotland would send England home
- But Starc says his side would never interfere with ‘Mother Cricket’
Mitchell Starc says Australia never considered giving up against Scotland to knock England out of the Twenty20 World Cup, after claiming a late win in St Lucia.
With their own progression to the Super Eight stage already assured, Australia were well below their best as they chased Scotland’s 5-180 with two balls and five wickets to spare.
Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis were Australia’s saviors, each scoring a half-century and combining for a match-changing 80-run stand.
Tim David and Matt Wade took the game to the death, before Chris Sole dropped David with three balls remaining, helping to ensure Australia remained unbeaten.
A Scotland win would have seen them qualify from Group B ahead of England, and even Josh Hazlewood admitted last week that would have been a good result for Australia.
Mitchell Starc insists Australia never intended to lose Scotland match
The Australians knew that a defeat against the Scots would have eliminated England from the World Cup.
But Starc said that line was taken out of context as England now progress based on a higher net rate than Scotland.
“A shooting line has been blown out of proportion,” Starc said after the win over Scotland.
You don’t dwell on Mother Cricket and try to worry about other outcomes.
“We are here to win matches. It is international cricket.
“England are now on the other side of the draw, so it doesn’t really make much difference for the next three games.”
However, for long periods of the match, England may have feared they were heading for another spirit-of-cricket brawl with Australia.
With Pat Cummins rested and Stoinis not bowling, Starc admitted Australia’s fielding was “terrible” as they lost six catches and looked at risk of a first T20 loss to an associate nation.
Brandon McMullen scored 60 off 34 balls for the Scots, hitting six sixes and regularly going inside-out for long.
Adam Zampa finally got his ground when he beat the right-hander in flight and Starc trapped him well at short third man, halting Scotland’s momentum.
Glenn Maxwell claimed 2-44, suffering a penalty before outplaying opener George Munsey (35 off 23) at another crucial moment.
Josh Hazlewood’s comments last week suggested Australia could lose the game, but Starc insists his team would never interfere with ‘Mother Cricket’.
In response, Australia struggled to catch fire and fell to 1-36 after six overs and their slowest powerplay of the competition.
When the equation reached 107 needed from the last 10 overs, England would have been considering booking their flights home.
But Head (68 off 49 balls) and Stoinis (59 off 29) got their team back into the game.
Stoinis was the first to make an impact,
With 89 needed off 42 balls, he took 18 from Safyaan Sharif when he hit it for six and then cleared the rope on the pitch with the next ball.
And then, with 60 needed off the last five overs, Head hit Sharif for three sixes in a row before being caught on the ground a few balls later.
By the time of Head’s dismissal, the damage had already been done and any notion that Australia deliberately eliminated England from the tournament had been exposed as a myth.
“He was just trying to keep batting (Head), and then he picked his bowler and turned the game around with those three sixes,” Stoinis said.
‘There is no substitute for trust. That’s the recipe we all try to keep: to be confident for as long as possible.’
Australia will now face India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in their Super Eight group, unless Nepal surprise Bangladesh on Monday.
